Air conditioner closet door construction

ABSTRACT

An air conditioner within the closet of a living space, said closet having a special access door equipped with dampered openings adjacent its top and bottom edges. During the cooling season the air conditioner draws its supply air from the upper door openings, and during the heating season the air conditioner draws its supply air through the lower door openings. The invention improves air conditioner efficiency and minimizes stratification and temperature differentials between the floor and ceiling.

[451 Apr. 4, 1972 United States Patent Loveley 54] AIR CONDITIONER CLOSET DOOR FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS Great Britain...........................165/59 CONSTRUCTION [72] Inventor:

Joseph D. Loveley, Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich.

Primary Examiner-Albert W. Davis, Jr. Attorney-John E. McRae, Tennes I. Erstad and Robert G. Crooks [73] Assignee: American Standard Inc., New York, NY.

[22] Filed: Nov. 5, 1970 [57] ABSTRACT An air conditioner within the closet of a living space, said [21] Appl. No.:

closet having a special access door equipped with dampered openings adjacent its top and bottom edges. During the cooling season the air conditioner draws its supply air from the upper door openings, and during the heating season the air conditioner draws its supply air through the lower door R H m 3 8 5 5 5 N, 6 3 1 5 3 m7 5 5 m 6 5 l 6 u m mh c n u m L mr m rm U Mr. T Ho e 5 55 References Cited openings The invention improves air condiuoner efficiency and minimizes stratification and temperature differentials between the floor and ceiling.

UNITED STATES PATENTS Euwer................................165/137 X 4 Claims, 1 Drawing Figure AIR CONDITIONER CLOSET DOOR CONSTRUCTION THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a closet air conditioner arrangement incorporating the invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view on line 22 in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view on line 3-3 in FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary enlarged view of the FIG. 3 door.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged sectional view taken on line 5-5 in FIG. 2.

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary enlarged sectional view of another embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 1 IN GREATER DETAIL FIG. I shows a closet I defined by an outside building wall 12, a floor l4 and a ceiling 16. The front wall 18 of the closet is provided with a door opening 20 arranged to be closed by a swinging or sliding door 22 of sufficient adult height to permit walk-in. Normally the closet would be disposed in one of the bedrooms or at the end of a hallway. Arranged within the closet is a conventional air conditioner 26 of rectangular shape. As shown, the conditioner housing is subdivided by a vertical partition 28 into an outer compartment 30 and an inner compartment 31. Arranged within the outer compartment is a refrigerant compressor 34, refrigerant condenser coil 36, and motor driven fan 38. The fan draws outside air into compartment 38 through an intake opening 40; the air is forced upwardly through the angled condenser coil 36 and out through an opening 42, thereby causing the refrigerant flowing through the condenser coil to be condensed in the usual manner.

Inner compartment 31 contains a centrifugal blower 44 which receives its air supply from a louvered inlet opening 46, and which discharges its air upwardly through a refrigerant evaporator coil 48 and heater 50 (which may be an electrical resistance heater or gas-fired burner device).

During the heating season the compressor 34 is inactive so that coil 48 is ineffective to cool the air flowing upwardly from blower 44; at this time the heater 50 may be periodically energized by a room thermostat, (not shown) so that the upflowing air is heated and delivered to a vertical riser duct 52. The heated air is distributed to the rooms via one or more horizontal branch ducts 54.

During the cooling season heater 50 is deenergized, and refrigerant compressor 34 and fan 38 are energized so that refrigerant is liquified in condenser 36 and vaporized in evaporator 48. Upflowing air from blower 44 is thereby cooled as it passes through coil 48. The cooled air is distributed to the rooms through ducts 52 and 54.

SUPPLY AIR FOR THE CONDITIONER In multi-floor home air conditioning systems it is common to provide return air registers in each room. Such return registers connect with a common return duct which returns the air to the central air conditioner for heating during winter and cooling during summer. In single floor residences, particularly apartments, the return air may be supplied to the air conditioner through open doorways.

In the present invention the return air for the conditioner is taken from space 60 in front of the closet door 22, which may connect with a hallway or large room. The air can move through an upper louvered passage 56 in the door (cooling season) or through a lower louvered passage 58 (heating season) A vertically adjustable damper plate 59 precludes simultaneous air flow through both passages; when one passage is closed the other is open, and vice versa. In its FIG. 1 position the damper plate obstructs flow through passage 56.

AIR STRATIFICATION During the heating season it is desirable that return air be taken from points in room 60 near the floor because the floor air is generally cooler and has an uncomfortable feeling. During the cooling season it is desirable that the return air be taken from points in room 60 near the ceiling because the ceiling air will be hotter and the least comfortable. In conventional arrangements the return air is usually taken from the same point during both seasons, either near the ceiling or near the floor, depending on the particular compromise chosen. With conventional arrangements the occupants are not completely comfortable on a year round basis, since as much as a 10 temperature differential exists between floor level and areas about six feet above the floor (in moderate weather near 55 F there is little differential). It is an object of the present invention to provide an arrangement that eliminates or minimizes this air stratification or temperature differential feature.

I-IEATING COOLING PERFORMANCE In general the performance of the air conditioner is improved by increasing the temperature differential between the entering air stream (through louver 46) and the discharge stream (through duct 52). Thus, during the cooling season the refrigerant evaporator will produce more air cooling when the entering temperature at louvers 46 is relatively high; during the heating season the air conditioner will provide more heating when the entering air temperature through louvers 46 is relatively low.

In the air cooling mode a high entering air temperature means a greater temperature differential between the air and refrigerant, thus tending to increase the average mass flow of refrigerant to satisfy the demand. The cooling unit therefore tends to operate nearer its rated capacity. A cooling unit fully rated at F entering air temperature might have only about 82 percent of rated capacity with entering temperatures of about 70 F.

In the air heating mode a low entering temperature means a greater temperature differential between the air and heater surface (electric or flame-heated). The larger temperature differential means greater heat transfer and operation closer to rated heater capacity.

The illustrated arrangement of dampered passages 56 and 58 provides the desired entering air temperatures, and thus improves the capacity of the air conditioner to heat in the winter and cool in the summer. It may thus be possible by using the described dampered passages to reduce the size of the air conditioner needed for a given room area and geographical location.

DAMPER CONSTRUCTION As shown in FIG. 1 the closet door 22 is provided with a louvered air passage 56 in its upper half section, and a second louvered air passage 58 in its lower half section. The rear face of the door carries two channel guide elements 62 and 64 which guide the rectangular damper plate 59 for vertical movement between its illustrated position closing passage 56 and a non-illustrated position closing passage 58. Any suitable latch device may be provided to retain the damper plate in its selected position of adjustment. As schematically shown in FIG. 5, the latch device comprises a bullet latch element 66 slidable in a sleeve-like thimble member 67 carried by plate 59. A spring 68 normally urges the latch element 66 outwardly so that it can enter into an upper opening 70 or a lower opening 72 (FIG. 2) in the door 22 to retain the damper plate in its selected positions of adjustment. The latch element can be retracted by pull-out force on a manual knob 74.

PASSAGE DIMENSION A typical apartment size air conditioner might require an air flow of about 1,200 cubic feet per minute through blower 44 and the air conditioning components. Passages 56 and 58 must be of sufficient size to handle this air flow without introducing appreciable pressure drop or excessive sound pulsation. Generally the linear air flow rate through each passage ('56 or 58) should be no higher than about 800 feet per minute. With a door width of about 30 inches each rectangular louvered air passage 56 or 58 could be sized on the order of inches wide by 20 inches high without starving the air conditioner. Conventional louvered doors provide sufficient passage area for use in practicing the invention without adding excessive cost to the air conditioner installation.

SOUND ABSORPTION During operation of the air conditioner air flow through blower 44 and through fan 38 may produce some objectionable noise; compressor 34 and duct 52 may also produce some noise. It is desirable that such noises by minimized as much as possible because the air conditioner is located closely adjacent the living areas, and not in the basement. Much of the noise can be dampened by lining chambers 30 and 31 with sound absorbent material, and by encasing duct 52 in a sound absorbent sleeve. However inevitably some blower 44 noise propagates back through louvers 46 toward room 60. To minimize such noise propagation into the room panel 59 and the louvers in door 22 may be formed of sound-absorbent material. Also, the louvers can be replaced by a sound-absorbent plate having small circular air flow passageways therethrough. However, the louvered construction has certain ornamental advantages.

WHY PLACE THE AIR RETURNS IN THE DOOR? As shown in FIG. 1, the air conditioner is disposed in a closet having a fixed front wall 18. Although not shown, the closet preferably has a width that is only slightly greater than the width of the air conditioner, the aim being to reduce the closet dimension and thereby increase the useful living area. When the air conditioner is employed in a closet of very small width the door 22 occupies substantially the entire width of the closet; the door itself is therefore the only structure available for reception of the return air inlets 56 and 58.

It should also be noted that doors are commonly manufactured in factories, and that the louvered door construction shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 is most conventionally formed and assembled by factory methods. Therefore manufacturing economies tend to dictate that the high-low returns be incorporated in the door rather than in fixed wall structures. Preferably however the return air passages are incorporated with the least possible modification of the conventional door structure. As shown in FIG. 2, the door is conventional except for the addition of panel 59 and guides 62 and 64.

FIG. 6

FIG. 6 illustrates another embodiment of the invention wherein the damper plate 59 is hingedly mounted on the midsection of the closet door. The hinge mounting comprises a first leaf 72 suitably secured to the door, a second leaf 74 suitably secured to the damper plate, and a connecting hinge pin 76. The arrangement enables plate 59 to be swung in a vertical arc about the axis of pin 76 so that the plate can alternately obstruct the lower passage 58 or the upper passage 56.

In each of the illustrated embodiments the damper plate is disposed on the rear face of the door facing the closet interior. The panel could be located on the front face of the door. but it would then detract from the doors ornamental appearance.

I claim:

1. In a building construction comprising a closet commu nicating with a room through a door opening of adult height; an air conditioner located within the closet; said conditioner comprising (1) a casing having a return air inlet for receiving air from the closet space, (2) air heating and cooling means within the casing, and (3) a blower for flowing air from the inlet through the heating and cooling means to the casing outlet: the improvement comprising a door for the closet opening; said door having a first air passage therethrough adjacent its upper edge and a second air passage therethrough adjacent its lower edge, and a unitary damper operable to close the first air passage urmg the heating season and to close the second arr passage during the cooling season; whereby the air conditioner receives air solely from the lower spaces of the room during the heating season, and whereby the air conditioner receives air solely from the upper spaces of the room during the cooling season.

2. The construction of claim 1 wherein the damper comprises a damper plate slidably mounted on one face of the door for vertical mo ement between selected positions of adjustment.

3. The construction of claim 1 wherein each air passage is subdivided into multiple air passage sections by horizontal louvers within the plane of the door.

4. The construction of claim 1 wherein each air passage has a width approaching the door width and a height approaching one-half the door height, whereby each passage provides an extensive area flow path for return air to the conditioner. 

1. In a building construction comprising a closet communicating with a room through a door opening of adult height; an air conditioneR located within the closet; said conditioner comprising (1) a casing having a return air inlet for receiving air from the closet space, (2) air heating and cooling means within the casing, and (3) a blower for flowing air from the inlet through the heating and cooling means to the casing outlet: the improvement comprising a door for the closet opening; said door having a first air passage therethrough adjacent its upper edge and a second air passage therethrough adjacent its lower edge, and a unitary damper operable to close the first air passage during the heating season and to close the second air passage during the cooling season; whereby the air conditioner receives air solely from the lower spaces of the room during the heating season, and whereby the air conditioner receives air solely from the upper spaces of the room during the cooling season.
 2. The construction of claim 1 wherein the damper comprises a damper plate slidably mounted on one face of the door for vertical mo ement between selected positions of adjustment.
 3. The construction of claim 1 wherein each air passage is subdivided into multiple air passage sections by horizontal louvers within the plane of the door.
 4. The construction of claim 1 wherein each air passage has a width approaching the door width and a height approaching one-half the door height, whereby each passage provides an extensive area flow path for return air to the conditioner. 